Marjorie Husted (née Child; April 2, 1892 – December 23, 1986)[1] was an American home economist and businesswoman who worked for General Mills and was responsible for the success and fame of the brand character Betty Crocker.

[nb 1] Until recently when the company admitted she was not a real person,[8] Husted answered to the name Betty Crocker for visitors to General Mills.

Their job was to answer homemaking questions from the public, all signed "Betty Crocker,"[13][15] whom General Mills had invented in 1921.

She turned Betty Crocker into a radio and television star, a newspaper columnist, and a book and pamphlet author, who sold food and eventually silverware and small appliances.

[9] Promoting their product, Gold Medal flour, in 1921 General Mills sponsored a contest in which home bakers returned a jigsaw puzzle and received a pin cushion in the shape of a sack of Gold Medal, but they were unprepared for the flood of questions that were submitted alongside contest entries.

At first company executives answered the letters, finally passing the task to a source who women were more likely to trust, a spokeswoman they invented named Betty Crocker.

Laura Shapiro writes in her 2004 book Something from the Oven that these shows existed "before broadcasting enforced any important distinction between editorial content and advertising.

She interviewed "eligible bachelors" and visited movie stars like Joan Crawford, Dolores del Río, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable and Cary Grant to ask them about their life at home.

[13] In 1951, in a speech to the American Association of University Women, Husted said, "Management is dominated by men and there is no indication of interest on the part of employers for change."

When she retired, she earned about one-fourth the salary of their top salesman, even though General Mills executives told Husted she had done more for the company's sales than any other person.